New Beer Sunday (week 545)

Wow Great Pics @smanson56 . I know your quite far to the east, but I just got back from vaca'ing in the PNW, and some of the greener spots looked a bit like your photos. Now, I'm a little sad to be in the 90 degree heat of SoCal.

 

Corey is a generous NBS BIFer to say the least!!!

 

Greetings All from the Great Northwest where the dog days of summer have descended upon us already.

Today it's Blue Moon White IPA. Seems appropriate since we just had a July Blue Moon. Part of a summer sampler from Coors. I have to get rid of these beers before summer is over.

Not a bad brew, but not an IPA by any stretch of the imagination. More of a hopped up spiced wheat ale.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/306/161265/

Hot and hazy here today. There is a wild fire burning 150 miles northwest of here which is fouling the air. It's been a long fire season with a long way to go yet.

Happy Trails!

 

I will raise my glass to your Uncle Jack. Sounds like you chose a very appropriately named beer to raise in his honor.

 

just want to say I love this beer

 

My son in law brought by a bunch of Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes from Pittsboro. These things are amazing and my pastry chef handy wife Martha whipped up this pie. This is probably one of the very best things that I have ever tasted.
I just always liked Boz Scaggs, and Steve Miller.

Awesome ingredients

 

Evening fellow NBS-ers! Today's offering:
Alltech's Lexington Brewery & Distilling Co. Kentrucky Rye Barrel IPA

Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into a Cuvee glass, no visible date on the bottle. I nice orange to amber color body with a 1/2 finger's worth of head.
A lot of that rye whiskey in the nose immediately! Vanilla, some leather and of course that barrel.
Sweet molasses up front, a little pine an for lack of a better term, menthol in the middle with a very dry finish.
After the barrel subsides there's not much in the feel, kind of light, not what I was expecting from a barrel aged beer. No hint what-so-ever of 10% abv! Could be a very dangerous beer. Just a lingering whiskey sweetness on the tongue
This wasn't a bad beer at all, the only thing I find lacking is the overall taste/mouth-feel to aroma; the one does not equal out to the other. That strong whiskey aroma is there and then just lingers after the fact.

Cheers Big Ears!

 

And finally, this is happening...

This is a decent, but not high-quality tripel... Fairly on-point for the style, fruity and soft, tropical and orchard fruits, pale and sweet; grains mild and pale... sugars run a little strong... perhaps a bit thick on the tongue...

I'm not done processing yet, but I'd say I enjoyed this series better than the Ommegang Game of Thrones Series, but it was not necessarily of any better or worse quality - these went with bigger abvs, and I liked that...

Bolg Belgian Style Tripel

I'll check back in when I've slain the orc...

 

"Mother f@%#er!!!"

That was me about 3 hours ago. Brewing my beer, the boil was done, and set up the wort chiller to cool the beer down. Had to hook the water supply to a different location than usual, b/c it wasn't tightening right on the main line. Well, the other line is a much shorter throw from on/off, and well, I am an IDIOT. Water comes on full steam and no one is manning the water hose, and...

I'm thinking the burns are only 1st degree, but they might be borderline based on how it feels. After running cold water and checking on things, I just wanted to get the beer done. In my rush, I definitely pitched the yeast in too warm a beer. Oh well, I considered throwing it all anyhow - there's still a chance it'll be drinkable at least.

That episode convinced me to go big, hoping it might kill some of the discomfort. So I am going with Brew Dog Tokio:


I actually ended up liking this decently well. It reminds me slightly of Black Butte XXVI with the play between roasted malt flavor and the tart fruit component. This one doesn't hide its alcohol, but it isn't a boozy mess. It is a dessert or after dinner beer, in my mind, though. Although it smelled like molasses, I thought the taste was more balanced by the berry tartness (ok - it is apparently cranberries). I actually liked the middle taste when the opening burnt sugar and alcohol notes faded.

Re-reading @Roguer's review from earlier, I did start noticing how there was a coffee bitterness throughout - perhaps that was what was balancing the sweetness from the nose moreso than the berry notes. In the very end, while the berry flavors slowly fade, I did get a lightly sweet coffee note joining the exit party.

Last beer for me; good night NBS.

 

New Bruery Sunday

I was able to sneak in a new beer with an actual review as I am sharing this one with my brother. Thanks @SanFranJake This one is on the cusp of being one of the best beers I have had.

4.31/5 rDev -1.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Pours black. Fairly thin with minimal head. Not as viscous as I was hoping, but typical of a barrel aged beer.

Smells excellent. Chocolate, sweet roasted nuts, vanilla. All masked a hair by a lot of alcohol.

Tastes outstanding, but there is that significant amount of heat up front that I smelled. Tons of bourbon. You will want to sip this a bit. Tip of the tongue for best flavor. However, once the initial blast of alcohol passes this beer starts to shine. It's a hazelnut throwdown. Also some vanilla, molasses, and then closes with some brownie/fudge like chocolate. Slightly bitter with some more astringent heat in the aftertaste.

Body is a tad thin. Carbonation is somewhat prickly.

Interesting what l my friend San Fran Jake has to say about this with some age because my first thought is I wonder what 6-18 months would do. Obviously it gets hard to hide that kind of abv, and it really isnt that bad, but I think I would have this brew in the 4.75 + range if it came in around 12-15%. Still right on that world class line.

Edit: I am considering bumping the smell and taste score as it warms. It really opens up and the malts start to balance out the heat.

 

#2, this is a gargantuan beer. I need a nap. Have a wonderful Sunday evening, NBSers.



4.44/5 rDev +2.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Look: black as coal, 1+ fingers of tan head.

Smell: lotsa booze - whiskey, sherry, some sweetness, dark malts.

Taste: the sweetness is right up front, then the booze kicks in, some chocolate and cocoa maybe? Exquisite.

Feel: creamy delightfulness, the booze doesn't thin this out at all.

Overall: this is a world class Imperial Stout. My first beer from these guys, I'll be a repeat imbiber.

 

Good Evening BA's, better late than never. It has been a busy month for me, hosting my cousin from Finland, interviewing and being hired to a new position. While I found time to enjoy and post I haven't been on the PC too often, fortunately things have settled enough for me to enjoy another NBS thread. The beer featured this week is:

Stone Brewing Co. – RuinTen

I poured this somewhat slow at 45°-50°F into a grand snifter and it revealed a cloudy amber color with a thin, half finger off white head and sparse, spotty lacing.



The smell was rather mundane and pedestrian for an Imperial IPA, malty sweetness with some citrus and pine so nothing to get too excited over. I enjoyed the citrus rind and malts in this one and even the bitter dry finish didn't ruin my experience. I felt Stone did an excellent job with this brew as it is well balanced, a great oily to creamy mouth but not too cloying with the reasonably piney, bitter aspects you would expect from an Imperial IPA.

 

Final results...


Smaug

Slain...



Gollum

Slain...



Bolg

Slain...


Cheers...

If the vids don't stand, check out my WBAYDN post here

 

New Beer Sunday American Wild Ale: Jolly Pumpkin Roja

Evenin NBSers, with with warm wishes to all those those wild and woolly lovers of wild ales who wish to avoid being fleeced.

Well the weather here today was close to perfect, even though we are in the midst of a heat wave. Temps just barely hitting a high of 90 while the humidity was in the tolerable 40s. Naturally we could not waste a day like this and so my wife and I spend a good bit of time getting caught up on some shopping and putting together some odds and ends for when we have some family as house guests later this month.

This evening's new beer is a pour from a bottle of the Jolly Pumpkin Roja, currently classified as an American Wild Ale although it seems to have been inspired by the Flanders Oud Bruin style.

As usual my review is in progress (and subject to revision until I finish this 12-13 oz pour):

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9897/19314/?ba=drtth

This bottle is from Blend 8, bottled in June of 2011. It has been resting quietly in the basement almost 4 years now just waiting for this particular evening.

There is a lot of tart cherry in both the aromas and flavors and the wild yeast is definitely noticable in the aroma, sometimes from as much as a foot away from the glass.

On the whole I'm quite enjoying this beer.

No music for this evening as I've also been exercising one of my other hobbies, writing some notes, etc. using one of my collection of fountain pens. (If you think beer is an expensive hobby.... .) The particular pen I've been using this evening is one that happened to have been dropped some years ago and the nib was almost unusable until I found this guy at the Philly Pen Show a few years back.



Semi-retired now he restores vintage pens, brings them back to life and then offers them for sale on his web site. He is well known among fountain pen geeks as a "nibmeister," which means if you have a fountain pen with a damaged or less than ideal nib for writing and you can find him at a pen show, he can usually make it so right that your entire writing experience is transformed. If your pen has a scratchy nib, when he is finished with it the pen nib glides across the page as smoothly as if the page were coated with butter.

Cheers, All!

 

Haven't posted in this thread for way too long but I still have been trying to read through all of your reviews each week. Anyway, finally picked up something that I thought was worthy of a review so here it goes!
W00tStout 2015:

Pours a rich black with a head that fades away pretty quickly. I think I'm smelling mostly pecan and a slight hay-like smell along with a soy sauce aroma. Maybe also some cocoa in there too but definitely a strange smell to me and tough to describe. Taste is better than the smell. Roasted cocoa and nut flavor with a smooth vanilla finish but there's not a hint of bourbon for me. Needless to say it doesn't have the thick bourbon feel I was hoping for in a 13% stout and overall this beer is a disappointment to me compared to the 2.0 version. Maybe I had the 2.0 version aged and didn't know it? Oh well, hopefully it will get better as it warms up but otherwise I won't be buying this one again.

4.02/5 rDev -4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Cheers all!

 

Had several Columbus beers before but never grabbed the IPA. A really solid drinkable beer. Drink this and then time to pull th shoulder after 9 hours on the smoke, It's awesome!!!!

 

We had an awesome weekend. My sister called for a coming-together of all of the great families () up at my parents' house in Bethel, NY, and the weather cooperated nicely. I only wish we had more days. Lots of games were played, and lots of beer was consumed, and we were even able to spend a nice portion of the afternoon in Callicoon. My #1 son came away with a damn nice thrift-shop leather jacket for $20, which I hope he gets more use out of than what I spent my money on (food and beer, naturally ). Then it was back to the house for a late afternoon of games in the yard, music blasting, meat grilling, tasty beverages flowing...

Anyway- I have tonight one of the selections that we didn't even get to last night

@Sixpoint 4 Beans, thankfully available in NY so I could get some earlier than my fellow Jerseyans.

Just like its predecessor, this beer really is all about balance and mouthfeel. This time a hint of vanilla is added to the other flavorings of coffee and cocoa. The star of the show is still that wonderfully fresh-tasting coffee, and it still reminds me of chewing on a chocolate-covered espresso bean candy, with the added benefit of not having that gritty feeling in my mouth . But most of all I love how seamlessly these flavors meld, and how that mouthfeel manages to be simultaneously lean and dry as well as velvety smooth. I'm not a fan of the heavy, syrupy presence of excessive caramel, so this is right up my alley, and I bet it is in no small part due to the protein boost provided by the 'hidden' Romano bean. A real pleasure to drink, and going down quick as I end my week. (A, 4.4)

 

If you don't finish it, it doesn't count.
BTW, I had a 14 a month or so ago and the hazelnuts fell off, so fresh is best.

 

My apologies! I forgot to link my review for this beer!

 

Curious what the result would be if you split the difference. I will say that it is probably as good as World Wide Stout as far as not losing everything in the alcohol.